Wrong Line Working

[Hutch]

I have been reading with interest Dave's Diary where he recounts events that conspire to disrupt normal workings. I had never realised until reading these how much turning back early occured to keep things moving and maintain a semblence of a service either side of a fault/incident.

I have not come across in these accounts of any form of single line working where only one track is affected. Does this exist in the rule book as a possiblility and does it involve pilotmen and hand signalling as per the main line?

[Deleted]

These days it is almost never done, but back in The Day, it was done during repair work on the slow line bridge east of Bromley by Bow, necessitating single line working on the down slow (now the eastbound District). Dave has photos of this somewhere on his website.

[solidbond]

While the facility for Siingle Line Working still exists in the Working/Reference Manual, (Rule Book is so much easier to say ;D), as TheOneKEA says, it is rarely used to overcome short term incidents on a day-to-day basis.
However, during engineering works, depending on the nature of the works, it may well be used.
Indeed, it is currently being used most weekends on the Jubilee Line, between Kingsbury and Stanmore, while the engineering works take place at Wembley Park. It was also used some years ago on the District/Circle lines, between High Street Kensington and Paddington, when Edgware Road was being resignalled.

[Deleted]

solidbond said:

It was also used some years ago on the District/Circle lines, between High Street Kensington and Paddington, when Edgware Road was being resignalled.

I assume you are referring to the partial resignalling which saw the shrinking of the platform berth to 300ft, thus preventing D stock from ever returning to ERD in the normal way?

[Admin Team]

TheOneKEA said:

Dave has photos of this somewhere on his website.

They can be found at www.trainweb.org/districtdave/html/engineering_work.html

[Deleted]

District said:

They can be found at www.trainweb.org/districtdave/html/engineering_work.html

Ah, that's it!

Would something like this be done these days or would the service simply be suspended?

[solidbond]

TheOneKEA said:

I assume you are referring to the partial resignalling which saw the shrinking of the platform berth to 300ft, thus preventing D stock from ever returning to ERD in the normal way?

Indeed it was. However, there is nothing stopping a D stock from returning to Edgware Road - but now it would have to shunt forward towards Baker Street to reverse ;D (and if anyone tells me that it can't be done that way, I will be making a complaint, cos when the resignalling details were announced, I made a point of asking how would a D stock reverse there ;D ;D)

[solidbond]

TheOneKEA said:

Ah, that's it!

Would something like this be done these days or would the service simply be suspended?

As I stated above, it is being used, even as I type this on, the Jubilee Line.
The determining factor these days, as with everything else, is cost. Is it cheaper to provide a bus replacement service, or put the necessary protection in place to allow Single Line Working to take place.
Bearing in mind that the cost involved will also include getting Train Ops to the location of the SLW; providing Pilot Men for the trains; securing of the routes; ability to change over any defective trains, number of passengers customers using the affected section etc. When all these are taken into account, it is rare for SLW to be used

[citysig]

TheOneKEA said:

I assume you are referring to the partial resignalling which saw the shrinking of the platform berth to 300ft, thus preventing D stock from ever returning to ERD in the normal way?

It was that re-signalling. That murderous cull of a pretty decent signalling area. But as for D-stock using Edgware Road in the "normal" way it was of course never "normal." I have seen managers break into a cold sweat during the odd time one has visited the place. They had to use the middle roads and were not allowed to go towards Hammersmith - although one nearly did, but that's another story.

solidbond said:

However, there is nothing stopping a D stock from returning to Edgware Road - but now it would have to shunt forward towards Baker Street to reverse ;D (and if anyone tells me that it can't be done that way, I will be making a complaint, cos when the resignalling details were announced, I made a point of asking how would a D stock reverse there ;D ;D)

That is exactly where it goes - shunt via OP8 on the outer rail. I don't think it has been tested yet, but provided the middle roads are used it shouldn't cause any problem. Whilst on the subject of non C-stocks at Edgware Road, since the resignalling A-stock now has to pass through the station (middle roads again) and proceed as far as the junction, and shunt back via OP32. That has been tested in the early days of the resignalling!

Another factor in having SLW in use in an unplanned shutdown, is normally control staff experience. Normally much simpler all round to run the service as much as possible either side of a shutdown.

The Jubilee planned SLW was actually rehearsed overnight on several weekends leading up to the first weekend of use, as many of the staff on that line had never used the procedure.